Pride: a free lace knitting stitch pattern

The first word I’m encoding for this month is Pride, suggested by Pia and Natasha on Patreon.

(See the main post for a non-rainbow photo of the swatch; I couldn’t resist the overlay.)

Each month, my Patreon backers have the chance to suggest words for me to encode as knitting stitches. I make two of these into knitting stitches each month: the first is drawn from the collection of new words; the second is drawn from the collection of unused words. A random number generator helps me choose this, and then I get to work, first turning the letters into numbers, then charting the numbers onto grids in various ways. Finally, when I make the chart into lace, I turn the marked squares into yarnovers and work out where to place the corresponding decreases. (I usually make lace; occasionally I make cables instead.) I also make a chart for any craft that uses a square grid for designing; this goes in a separate post.

The charts are not meant in any way to look like the original words; the words are the seeds of my creativity.

Notes:

• This is a stitch pattern such as might be found in a stitch dictionary. It is not a pattern for a finished object. You will need to add selvedges or some other form of knitted stitches to either side.
• Pride is a multiple of 10 + 10 stitches and 10 rows.
• The repeats in the charts and the text aren’t in the same places. (The double YOs complicate writing the repeats logically in the text.)
• I’ve made a stitch map for it.
• Designers, please feel free to use this design in your patterns (no need to ask). I’d like credit but won’t be offended if people don’t give it. I’d love to see the end result, if you like.
• My blog posts and free stitch patterns are supported by subscriptions on Patreon or donations to my Paypal tip jar in the sidebar. If you appreciate my work, please consider helping out. Thanks!

Abbreviations:

• CDD: centered double decrease: slip the next 2 stitches as if to knit 2 together, knit the next stitch, then pass the 2 slipped stitches over the third.
• k: knit.
• k2tog: knit 2 stitches together as if they were 1. (Right-leaning decrease)
• p: purl.
• ssk: slip each of the next 2 stitches as if to knit, then knit them together through the back loop. (Left-leaning decrease)
• yo: yarnover

Row 1 (RS): k3, ssk, *yo x 2, k2tog, k6, ssk; work from *, yo x 2, k2tog, k3. [20 sts]
Row 2 (WS): p4, (k1, p1) in double yo, *p8, (k1, p1) in double yo; work from *, p4.
Row 3: k2tog, yo, k1, ssk, *yo x 2, k2tog, k1, yo, ssk, k2tog, yo, k1, ssk; work from *, yo x 2, k2tog, k1, yo, ssk.
Row 4: p4, (k1, p1) in double yo, *p8, (k1, p1) in double yo; work from *, p4.
Row 5: yo, ssk, k2tog, yo, k1, *k1, yo, ssk, k2tog, yo x 2, ssk, k2tog, yo, k1; work from *, k1, yo, ssk, k2tog, yo.
Row 6: p5, *p4, (k1, p1) in double yo, p4; work from *, p5.
Row 7: k1, k2tog, yo, k2, *k2, yo, ssk, k2, k2tog, yo, k2; work from *, k2, yo, ssk, k1.
Row 8: purl.
Row 9: yo, cdd, yo, k2, *k2, yo, cdd, yo x 2, cdd, yo, k2; work from *, k2, yo, cdd, yo.
Row 10: p5, *p4, (k1, p1) in double yo, p4; work from *, p5.

Encoding method:

I’ve mostly fallen out of the habit of explaining these, but am going to do it this time, because it’s not any my usual methods.

For this word, I used the binary encoding for pride (a little ironic, I know, but none of my non-binary code grids were working out the way I liked).

Anyway, the binary encoding for pride is 10000 10010 01001 00100 00101.

Since each letter is five digits in binary, and pride is five letters long, I figured this could make a 5 x 5 square that I could then turn into one of my two-color code grids. Like this (with P at the bottom, because knitting starts at the bottom of a chart):

In the final chart, each black square is a yarnover, and I had to figure out where to place the corresponding decreases.